This was a recent purchase of mine, and it arrived today. I bought a Qi knife with it, but it turned out to be a fake (the metal resonated when tapped, the coin felt light in-hand, and the patina had a very chemical-like smell). That certainly puts a damper on the mood, but I can send it back. The round coin, however, felt pretty real in hand, but its bad company has cast a little bit of a shadow on it. It is among the nicest I have seen for the type. Anyone have any thoughts? @Ken Dorney@AnYangMan@Loong Siew

The reading is “Gong”, which is a city in the state of Liang.

A little bit of background on these. While they are China’s first ROUND coins, they came into the picture some 200-300 years after China’s first spade and knife coins. There is some conjecture as to why the round coins came into being, but I believe that they were trying to mimic the form of jade discs that have some important purpose that has since been lost to us. I have read they symbolized eternal life, which would make sense in that they are often found in graves. Given how early Chinese coins were based off of something that had societal importance, this theory also makes sense.

They were cast in several cities, primarily in the states that also produced spade coins. In fact, there is a documented hoard which consisted of over 3500 Gong spades and almost 1200 Yuan round coins, which shows that they circulated concurrently.

Here is one with the inscription “Yuan”, which means “walled city”. Looking at the character, you can see what looks to be two walled-in cities on the banks of a river.

A Gong spade.

And here is a lot containing many fragments of some exceptionally rare coins. You can see the variety of cities that cast these coins, which shows that the idea of round coins spread around. But due to their rarity, especially when compared to spade coins, it seems that they were either not as popular, or that they came into being shortly before the Qin state annexed all of China.

In contrast, states producing primarily Knife coins used round coins With square holes. This is a far more practical design because a square hole facilitated the edge-filing process since it could not rotate around a square peg. This design would be adopted by Qin for their Ban Liang coinage.

Ming Hua. Notice how the character on the right side is the same as the one on the Ming knife below.

This was a recent purchase of mine, and it arrived today. I bought a Qi knife with it, but it turned out to be a fake (the metal resonated when tapped, the coin felt light in-hand, and the patina had a very chemical-like smell). That certainly puts a damper on the mood, but I can send it back. The round coin, however, felt pretty real in hand, but its bad company has cast a little bit of a shadow on it. It is among the nicest I have seen for the type. Anyone have any thoughts? @Ken Dorney@AnYangMan@Loong Siew

A little bit of background on these. While they are China’s first ROUND coins, they came into the picture some 200-300 years after China’s first spade and knife coins. There is some conjecture as to why the round coins came into being, but I believe that they were trying to mimic the form of jade discs that have some important purpose that has since been lost to us. I have read they symbolized eternal life, which would make sense in that they are often found in graves. Given how early Chinese coins were based off of something that had societal importance, this theory also makes sense.

They were cast in several cities, primarily in the states that also produced spade coins. In fact, there is a documented hoard which consisted of over 3500 Gong spades and almost 1200 Yuan round coins, which shows that they circulated concurrently.

Here is one with the inscription “Yuan”, which means “walled city”. Looking at the character, you can see what looks to be two walled-in cities on the banks of a river.

And here is a lot containing many fragments of some exceptionally rare coins. You can see the variety of cities that cast these coins, which shows that the idea of round coins spread around. But due to their rarity, especially when compared to spade coins, it seems that they were either not as popular, or that they came into being shortly before the Qin state annexed all of China.

In contrast, states producing primarily Knife coins used round coins With square holes. This is a far more practical design because a square hole facilitated the edge-filing process since it could not rotate around a square peg. This design would be adopted by Qin for their Ban Liang coinage.

Ming Hua. Notice how the character on the right side is the same as the one on the Ming knife below.

Looks just fine to me. Last time i had one was probably about 15 years ago and it was very similar in fabric, had the same patina, all of which is good and would indicate similar find spots. Mine was authenticated by Roger Doo.

Looks just fine to me. Last time i had one was probably about 15 years ago and it was very similar in fabric, had the same patina, all of which is good and would indicate similar find spots. Mine was authenticated by Roger Doo.

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What are your thoughts on these? I think they may be very early round coins without inscriptions.

Doesnt mean they are fake. Just that they are the exact coins illustrated in the book, and likely the collector/dealer who provided the information to the authors. They are not the same in the sense that they are similarly cast from the same mould, but they are the exact same coins. Same corrosion, same scratches, etc. Hard to tell how many dealer hands they have been through. I believe them to be genuine.

This was a recent purchase of mine, and it arrived today. I bought a Qi knife with it, but it turned out to be a fake (the metal resonated when tapped, the coin felt light in-hand, and the patina had a very chemical-like smell). That certainly puts a damper on the mood, but I can send it back. The round coin, however, felt pretty real in hand, but its bad company has cast a little bit of a shadow on it. It is among the nicest I have seen for the type. Anyone have any thoughts? @Ken Dorney@AnYangMan@Loong Siew

A little bit of background on these. While they are China’s first ROUND coins, they came into the picture some 200-300 years after China’s first spade and knife coins. There is some conjecture as to why the round coins came into being, but I believe that they were trying to mimic the form of jade discs that have some important purpose that has since been lost to us. I have read they symbolized eternal life, which would make sense in that they are often found in graves. Given how early Chinese coins were based off of something that had societal importance, this theory also makes sense.

They were cast in several cities, primarily in the states that also produced spade coins. In fact, there is a documented hoard which consisted of over 3500 Gong spades and almost 1200 Yuan round coins, which shows that they circulated concurrently.

Here is one with the inscription “Yuan”, which means “walled city”. Looking at the character, you can see what looks to be two walled-in cities on the banks of a river.

And here is a lot containing many fragments of some exceptionally rare coins. You can see the variety of cities that cast these coins, which shows that the idea of round coins spread around. But due to their rarity, especially when compared to spade coins, it seems that they were either not as popular, or that they came into being shortly before the Qin state annexed all of China.

In contrast, states producing primarily Knife coins used round coins With square holes. This is a far more practical design because a square hole facilitated the edge-filing process since it could not rotate around a square peg. This design would be adopted by Qin for their Ban Liang coinage.

Ming Hua. Notice how the character on the right side is the same as the one on the Ming knife below.